Puzzling Love
by Ice Demon Meru
Summary: Pucca has always chased after Garu, but what happens when something happens to her? Will Garu take it as a cue to leave or stick around to make sure she is okay? PuccaXGaru
1. Prologue

**Summary:** Pucca has always chased after Garu, but what happens when something happens to her? Will Garu take it as a cue to leave or stick around to make sure she is okay? PuccaXGaru

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Pucca or any character from the show. Pucca is property of Vooz.

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**Prologue:**

Dear Journal:

A lot of things have changed since childhood. We've all grown up, but haven't really grown apart. Not even Garu and I. He still gets irritated with me chasing him around all the time, but he hasn't ever tried to leave Sooga Village. That has struck me as a little odd over the years. Of course I don't mind. I still love him, and as stupid as this may sound, I think we were destined to be with each other.

…But anyway! Back to the changes. Abyo, Ching, and Garu have all gotten stronger. That's definitely a no brainer. Tobe has gotten stronger too, and possibly his ninjas as well, I'm not totally sure. Actually, I have seen Tobe or his ninja posse in a long time. Hm… Oh well. So, everyone, like I just said, has gotten a lot stronger. They've trained so hard. But don't think I've been doing nothing but eating noodles, working at the restaurant and chasing Garu. Oh no! I've done a lot more.

Everyone except Ching and her father knows this, so keep it a secret. Okay?? A few years ago Ching came to me and asked if I wanted to train like a ninja. She had mentioned how Garu had dove deeper into his training and how after awhile it would probably get a lot harder to chase him down. Now, don't get me wrong, as optimistic as I am I relish a challenge. So I politely declined the offer. After about half a year, I found that Garu was getting faster, more elusive. First it piqued my enthusiasm, but I wanted to make sure he wouldn't get too big of an edge on me. I went back to Ching and asked if her offer was still open. We talked to her dad and he agreed to help train me. Now I had a strange, natural knack for the training, but I still wanted it to be a secret. I wasn't sure what my uncles would think, and I didn't want Garu to find out. Where would the fun be if I did that?

So, I've been training for about six years now as a ninja. I'm not yet at Garu's level, but then again we are also on two different scales. I've recently talked to Master Soo about secretly taking the test to become a Fire Wasp Ninja. Yes, I did put my mark down seven years ago, but this time it will be official. And, Master Soo has mentioned that it has become a little more tricky and exciting since then. Yeah, that might not be a fair test since the ninja before had it easier, but like I said I relish a challenge. So in a week I'm going to try my hand at that test. I think that once I pass I may finally take the chance to tell Garu about everything…

Maybe…

Oh! I've got to go! I have to help with the restaurant!

-Pucca

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Ninja Log:

It's been over ten years since I've come to this village. Though I've done many things to earn great honor, I still don't think it's been enough to make up for what my ancestor did. And since I've been here everything has seemed to calm down. Which I suppose makes sense. With me doing all these things in the village and on the island, trouble would die down and eventually go away. The question is: Do I dare leave?

I guess on one hand I would get away from Pucca. She has been constantly been chasing me for over seven years now, maybe even since I got here. Though her incessant attacks have slowed and my advanced training has helped me escape the attacks that do come, it is still annoying. On the other hand, I'm not sure that leaving would really end the problem. I mean , that hard headed girl would probably just follow me and chase me down. She would probably even try to bring me back here. I don't think she'd want to be away from her friends or uncles for very long. Plus, I don't really want to leave. Other than Pucca chasing me, which is… mostly tolerable, there is nothing pushing me away from here. So, I suppose I'll stay. Push those thoughts of leaving out of my head.

Besides… Tobe hasn't been around for a long time. What has it been? A couple of weeks? Months? A year? Yes, I think it's almost been a years since I've last seen him. That isn't very reassuring to me. What has he been doing? What is he planning? Of course I've checked out his hideout. It was all but dismantled. Has he given up on whatever crazy ambition of destroying me and my quest for honor and left forever? I really doubt that. No. He is planning something. Somewhere, somehow, he is must be planning something. And whatever it is I'm going to have to stop him. I will stop him!

I have increased my training almost tenfold since I've came here, and now I'm determined to push myself even more. I don't want Tobe or anyone else to get the best of me. …Pucca on the other hand… She has somehow been able to keep up with me still. I'm not sure how she's done all of this, but she's the only one for now that can come close to besting me. And I want that to end as well. I know it would be dishonorable to just push her aside, so I will dig deeper in my training. Plus, she is a really good training partner. Running from her. Trying to pry her away. Good training… Eh, that doesn't mean I like her or anything. It just a platonic thing. Nothing more, no matter what she thinks. And I plan to keep it that way. She's just a silly little girl, with that ridiculous oversized red shirt, and puffy buns on her dumb head. Stupid giggles. ..Stupid kisses. Eck.

Erm… Heh… Crap. No more rambling about Pucca!

Anyway… I've got to get back to training.

-Garu

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**Author Notes:**

This is my first Pucca fan fiction so I hope you like it. This is just the prologue, so don't give me heat for the lack of action. It will be coming. I guess there isn't much to really say about this since it is just the prologue.

And just as a warning, this is my third fic so far, and I do plan on pouring most of my creativity into the other two I have going, but I will work on this as well. It's a good break from the other two, so who knows, this maybe updated more frequently. But those who know of my other works, it does take me awhile to get around to typing, so I'm apologizing in advance for the delays!

Anyways, I really hoped you enjoyed reading this. Please review. The next update: _Chapter One: I Wanna Be a Fire Wasp!_

Ice Demon Meru

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	2. Chapter One: I Wanna Be a Fire Wasp

**Summary:** Pucca has always chased after Garu, but what happens when something happens to her? Will Garu take it as a cue to leave or stick around to make sure she is okay? PuccaXGaru

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Pucca or any character from the show. Pucca is property of Vooz.

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**Chapter One: I Wanna Be a Fire Wasp!**

Pucca closed the door to her room and walked down the steps to the dining room of the restaurant. She ran her hands over her red top to smooth down the wrinkles that had accumulated on it. After her shirt was fixed she made her way over to the kitchen and opened the doors. Looking around she quietly watched her uncles working on making the first noodles of the day. Taking in the delicious scent she made her way over to them. As she moved across the floor, a crash sounded. She paused and turned to see Dada sitting on the floor with a nervous guilty look on his face. With a small giggle she started over to him.

"Oh…" Dada muttered, looking at the broken dishes on the floor. "Why does this keep happening?"

"Hehehe," Pucca knelt in front of him and held out a dust pan. She held a broom in her other hand.

"P-Pucca?" Dada questioned, cautiously taking the object from her.

_You shouldn't carry so many at once, _the girl mused. She stood up and started to carefully sweep around him, collecting all the shattered china into one pile.

"I… I know," the blond boy mumbled, holding the dust pan on the floor for her to sweep the pile into. After she was done, he carefully stood up and walked the filled pan to the garbage to dispose of unusable dishes. "Thanks Pucca."

"Hehe." She nodded. _No problem Dada._ She smiled and walked over to her uncles.

"Good morning Pucca," they chimed together.

_Good morning. Is everything ready for us to open?_

"Yes," Uncle Dumpling said. "You can go open up the front if you like."

"Uh huh," Pucca nodded, smiling. She then scampered back out of the kitchen and through the dining room to the front door. "Hm hm hmhmm," she hummed to herself as she unlocked the door and opened it. She took a brief moment to look around at the happy bustling of people.

"Pucca!"

"Hm?" She turned when her name was called and watched the kitchen door close again. Pulling the door closed, she hurried to the kitchen.

"You have a delivery to make Pucca," Linguini stated.

"A lot of deliveries really," Ho added.

"Huh?" Pucca looked over by the door at all the bowls of jjajang noodles piled up. Her eyes widened slightly. _OH WOW!_ A small, excited laugh escaped her lips as she ran by the pile of bowls to get her scooter.

"You best be careful Pucca," Dumpling said.

"Uh huh." Pucca nodded as she loaded the noodle bowls into her scooter._I'll be back once I deliver all of these!_ She closed the compartment with the food, and jumped onto the seat.

With a wave and a quick yet precise jerk of her scooter, she turned and started on the route of deliveries. She sped through Sooga, and with a slight press on the horn she announced her presence before dropping the jjajang noodles off at their respective buyer. Though she had a lot of deliveries, she did the task with lightning speed. It wasn't long before she was making her last delivery, at least for the moment, at Master Soo's house.

_Hello Master Soo. _ Pucca beamed happily when the door was opened and upon being let in she gently put down the last bowls she was carrying.

"Pucca, are you ready for you test?" Master Soo questioned.

"Mmhm." Pucca gave a nod and looked at him, an ever confident smile gracing her face.

"That's good. You only have another day to finish preparing yourself. Don't forget."

_I won't._ Pucca turned back to the door. _I should get back to the restaurant. Enjoy you noodles!_

"Thank you Pucca," Master Soo stated, picking up a bowl. "And don't be later tomorrow!"

_You're welcome. And I won't!_ Pucca closed the door and went back to her scooter to drive back to the Goh Rong. If she wasn't too heavily burdened with deliveries she hoped to go and get a little training in, and probably drop in on her favorite ninja.

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Every noise. He could hear every noise now. The soft rustling of leaves as the wind rushed through them. The calls of birds and bugs easily cut through the morning air. Anything and everything was within hearing range, at least for the most part. But this background noise meant little to Garu as he meditated. He only cared if he heard that familiar giggle or that enraging voice. No, unless it was something that would derail his training for a good chunk of time, Garu didn't care about anything going on around him. Of course he could only meditate for so long.

"Hmph." Garu's eyes opened in a flash and he looked around the area calmly._Nothing._ He stood up and ran to his house.

_Mio?!_he called, as he slid open the door. _Mio?_

"Mreow. Mreow," Mio replied, skipping out of his hiding place.

_Let's go to Chang's and see what Abyo is doing._

"Mm," Mio nodded and jumped onto Garu's head.

The two traveled along the path through the forest to Sooga Village at a moderate pace. It wasn't long before they made their way into the village, and when they arrived they quickly went to Chang's. As they opened the door they could hear series of blows being exchanged behind the walls. And as soon as Garu stepped through the doorway he had to jump to the side to avoid Abyo and Ching as they met in another forceful blow. He quickly made his way to a safer area to watch the two finish up.

"Hey! It's Garu!" Abyo called out when his eyes caught the black clothed ninja on the other end of the room.

"Hyah!" Ching grunted, ignoring Abyo's shout and clubbing him in the head with the blunt edge of her sword.

"Ugh!" Abyo flew a few feet across the floor.

"Oh Abyo!" Ching cried, replacing her sword and running over to him.

"Ow! Why'd you do that for?"

"I thought you were paying attention…"

"Yeah. Yeah…"

"Okay. Enough you two," Chang said, walking over to them. "I think that's enough for today."

"Alright!" Ching chirped, extending an arm to help Abyo up.

"Thanks a lot Garu," Abyo mumbled getting up and walking over to the other boy.

"Hn?" Garu just looked at him with his eyebrow quirked.

"It's your fault that I was distracted," he muttered, "Let's go! Right now! You and -"

"Hey you two!" Ching piped up, running over to them. "How about we go get some lunch and then you two can pummel each other?"

"Well… Uh…" Abyo folded his arms over his chest as he pondered the offer.

"What about you Garu?"

"Mmhm." Garu nodded.

"Well I'm going too!" Abyo shouted defiantly as the two started to leave.

It took only seconds to get from the dojo to the Goh Rong Noodle Shop, even with the three teens taking their time. The magical smell of jjajang noodles wafted from the doors and windows of the restaurant and the hustle and bustle of bowls being placed on tables or removed from them could be heard amongst the chatter and laughter of the people inside. When the door opened, the three were greeted by the friendly faces of the other customers. They exchanged greetings and made their way to an empty table. It was only moments before they saw a red and black blur flash several times by their table.

"Mmmwah!" Red clothed arms found there way around Garu's neck as a soft peck was placed on his head.

"Uhnn." Garu scowled as he pulled on the constricting arms around him, trying to release them.

"Hiya Pucca!" Ching chirped happily as she watched her friend shower the moody ninja's head with kisses.

_Hi Ching. Abyo._ Pucca greeted, finally letting Garu's head go. She walked around the table, heading toward the kitchen slowly. _Three bowls of noodles?_

"You got that right!" Abyo replied, which only received a giggle from Pucca before she disappeared into the kitchen.

_Stupid girl,_ Garu grumbled, rubbing the top of his head in attempts to rid him of the kisses placed there.

"Oh c'mon Garu," Abyo stated flatly. "She's always going to do that unless you put your foot down."

"Abyo! How can you say that! Garu can't be that mean. She just likes him," Ching scolded.

"Hn." Garu pouted for a second. He knew she was right.

_Here you go!!_ Three bowls of jjajang noodles were placed in front of them, followed by Pucca appearing in the seat next to Garu.

"Ehh.." Garu roughly slid his chair away from her, but to no avail, she followed suit.

"Hehehe." Pucca placed a quick kiss on his cheek.

_Stop that,_ Garu glared. He only received another kiss on the cheek. "Grr." He sighed and started to eat his noodles.

"So we're going to train after this, right?" Abyo asked as the three gobbled up the noodles.

"Mmhm." Garu nodded as did Ching.

"Hey… Maybe Pucca should come with us," Abyo jeered.

"Nuh uh." Garu glared at him. Pucca got red in the face, huffing silently.

"Pucca! Deliveries!"

"Hmph." She stood up and gave a small wave. _I guess I can't go anyways. Bye!_ She quickly placed a kiss on Garu's head before skipping off to the kitchen.

"She's so weird," Abyo stated, finishing up his noodles.

"Uh huh," Garu agreed.

"You guys!" Ching glared at them, but they only looked at her with innocent expressions. She sighed. "Let's just go."

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How long had they trained? An hour? Two? No… It was more like five. Five full hours of training, almost nonstop. Oh how their bodies ached, well at least Abyo's and Ching's. But they were gone now, gone back home. They had left a few hours ago, leaving Garu to his own devices. But he was done with training for now as well. He was just laying on the grass looking at the sky. He wanted to let his tense muscles relax, and take some time to think about things. The one thing plaguing his mind was Tobe. He hadn't thought about him in so long, and since he had, it wouldn't leave. And it was frustrating…

"Hm?" Garu lifted his head as he heard a humming noise come to a stop._Nothing._ His head fell back to the ground.

'_What is he doing? Where is he?'_ The thoughts flooded his mind.

"Umph." Garu jerked his upper body up a little, only to meet the gaze of his stalker. _Pucca._

_Hi._ Pucca leaned down to press a kiss onto his forehead. She sat on his legs carefully watching him.

_Could you get off me?_

"Hehehe. Nuh uh." She placed another kiss on his head, followed quickly by wrapping her arms securely around his neck.

"Ugh." Pushing himself into a stable sitting position, Garu attempted to pry himself free. _I don't have time for this. Just get off._

_C'mon Garu._ Pucca kissed him again, and as she looked at his normal disgruntled face, she released her hold on him and stood up.

"Huh?" Garu looked at her and blinked. _'What's going on?'_ he thought, slowly standing up himself. He watched for a few seconds and then walked around her to start for home.

"Mmm…" Pucca watched him quietly, thinking. _'Should I?'_ She turned as he passed her, and once he was a few feet away she stepped toward him. _Garu!!_

"Hn?" He turned around and looked at her, his expression asking her 'What?' She ran up to him.

_I… hmph._ She gave a quick peck on his nose. "Hehehe." She smiled, ran to her scooter, and rode off toward her house.

_Stupid girl._ Garu rubbed his nose gently once she disappeared. He then continued on to his house.

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**Author Notes:**

Okay! So I finally got around to the first chapter! Yay! I was deliberating on whether to update this or one of my other fics first, but since I've been watching Pucca lately, this won out. Huzzah for obsessiveness! I really hope you like this, and the next few chapters will be a little more action-y and such. I have a general idea where this is going, but it may only take me through a few chapters until I can think of some other thing to happen, but expect at least a few more.

Now I wanted to clear some things that may have caused confusion up.

First off, Pucca's caretakers. I haven't seen the original Korean Pucca nor read them so I'm not completely sure if the three noodle chefs are all her uncles or just one is. But for the sake of my fic, all three are her uncles.

Secondly, I know Garu and Pucca do not talk. Garu has a vow of silence, and Pucca… I'm not sure. But for the sake of a nice flowing story, they can communicate more than with just the simple grunt-like answers and such. As you have noticed, the normal things they would naturally say in the show are in "quotations," more complex answers or things said 'out loud' (as in not physically said but people can understand them) are in plain _italics_ and their thoughts are in _'italics and single quote marks'_. This may seem a little confusing, but I have a way where it will be important to see how each comes into play.

Third and lastly, I know it seems like Pucca and Garu have both mellowed toward each other. Her attacks aren't so heavy and he doesn't struggle so much. But hey, I set this seven years in the future (Pucca is seventeen and Garu is nineteen), so they would have become on friendlier terms, and Garu would have become more tolerant. And yet again, my fic my alterations! Mwahaha!

I hope that clears some things up, and if there is something else, either add it to a comment or message me and I'll try to either clear it up in the next chapter or some other way. Thanks for reading! Again, I really hoped you enjoyed reading this. Please review. The next update: _Chapter Two: Test Troubles_

Ice Demon Meru

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